For generations entertainers have augmented their performances with displays of light. Virtually any person who has attended a professional sporting, musical, dramatic or other type of performance will be familiar with the role that stage lights, lasers, spotlights and other illumination devices can play in entertainment of an audience. As a prelude to entry of performers onto a stage, or as an integrated part of a choreographed performance, sophisticated light displays have become virtually indispensable to modern entertainment.
In recent years, and in particular for certain entertainment genres, attempts have been made to integrate the audience into the show, and lighting effects have been used for this purpose. In the exciting and charged atmospheres of rock concerts, DJ performances, and others, audience members have enthusiastically offered up illumination devices such as so-called glow sticks, cigarette lighters, and even mobile handheld electronic devices or smart phones as ways to become part of the show, spontaneously or at the invitation of performers.
In the latter of these examples, software designers appear to have recognized the unique potential of such portable devices to enable audience participation. One known strategy makes available a pre-recorded and customizable sequence of illumination procedures to be executed via portable devices in the possession of numerous audience members. These and other strategies appear to have expanded the suite of lighting effects available to performers and venue operators or producers, but remain far from enabling the full theoretical potential for audience participation in entertaining light displays.